Originally Posted by
Mech-a-nic
http:///forum/post/3069485
Cured rock is free of dead or dying organic matter, whereas uncured rock may have dead or dying reef organisms attached to it. If you buy uncured rock you will need to clean it yourself. Don't place uncured live rock into an aquarium that has fish or other life forms living in it. It is likely to have dead sponges, crustaceans, and other dying organisms that will seriously pollute the water.
Yes technicaly it will not cause a spike. But "Dead rock" by and large what you will get is
uncured so yes it can cause a spike. You would have to be sure you cleaned every little nook and crevis and remove any organic meterail. So I would precure any rock you add or not more than a few % of your total to let you tanks natral filtration catch up.
I hate to disagree but I have never heard of uncured rock being called dead rock. And if the rock is dead it has not organic life on or in it hence no chance of spike.
There are certain topics, which I feel in some small way I am able to debate, this may be one of them. If I were to go to the shore and pic up a rock it may or may not have life inhabiting it. If I were to take this rock home and put it in a bucket of bleach I would in fact sterilize the rock. This rock would now be classified as dead. The rock its self is not dead but it is devoid of any life. If I were now to put this dead rock in my tank it would have no effect on my bio filtration load (no spike). It may colonize bacteria grow micro and macro algae on it and present a home for critters. If this happens we now call this rock live. Uncured rock, as we know it is rock that has sustained life on or in it and for what ever reason this life is dieing. Introducing this dieing rock can cause a spike if our bio filtration cannot handle the degrading organics. This rock is not dead it has portions of it which are dieing off. All uncured rock once sustained life. Dead rock as I have stated is devoid of life